Introduction
An international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled
most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the
Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central
Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the
Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from
1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central
Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage,
and destruction it caused.
World War I was one of the
great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the
fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia,
Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia, and, in its destabilization...
